bee allowed to forejudge my opinion because it makes our Reconcilement with the Church of Rome easier then they would have it For if division in the Church without evident and valuable cause bee a sin to God it will certainly bee the sin of the Kingdom to bear them out in it by stating our Reformation upon undue grounds For the terms of it must needs bee according to the grounds of it which being either invisible or inconsiderable in comparison of the benefits of Unity must needs translate some part of the blame to rest upon that side which exceeds And therefore to excuse my freedom in publishing that Why it ought to bee declared which follows Let no man grudge me this Plea for my self at the day of Judgement that being convicted that our agreement cannot bee acceptable to God but upon the consequence of those two suppositions according to that which follows I am not at rest till I have said it Could there bee peace had by compounding the Interest of two parties without providing for the Interest of our common Christianity in those two Articles what joy could a Christian expect of that which should bee purchased at so unconscionable a Rate Here is nothing said but that which hath been said when Arbitrary power might have made it a pretense for Persecution had the Interest of Usurpers allowed it It is a short view of that which I have published heretofore presented to those that may desire to see in one prospect what is the true consequence of it in the composing of those differences that remain still on foot And the danger of being involved in the Crime of Schisme before God obligeth me to declare that opinion which being not declared may render me lyable to that charge in Gods sight Therefore there is no offense to Superiors in declaring it The The declaring of it no offense to Superiors Lawes of Kingdoms go by a Rule that is made of such metal as may bend and be fitted to the body which they are to rule Only they are to aim at an inflexible Rule of Gods truth which is the Inheritance of every Christian And therefore he that sees it made crooked is bound to set it straight This is not to say what publique Authority should do but what it should intend to do A thing necessary to bee said when there bee those who would have it intend that which it ought not to do In fine the difficulty and danger of our case seems to supersede for the present the Rule of Obedience in the Church CHAP. V. Wee have the same evidence for the Visible Vnity of the Church as for the truth of the Scriptures The Church founded upon the Power of the Keyes The Vnity of the Church Visible by the Lawes of it The Law which endoweth the Church with Consecrated Goods How the Vnity of the Church is signified by the Scriptures How in the Old Testament Wee have the same evidence for the Visible Unity of the Church aâ— for the truth of the Scriptures I Say then that the Unity of the Church signifies nothing unless it signifie the Visible Unity of Communion in the outward offices of Gods Service Not onely the Invsible Unity of the heart in Faith and Charity Unless the Church bee founded by God for an outward Society Visible to the common reason of man Not onely for an Invisible Number the Unity whereof onely his own Invisible Wisdom inwardly designeth And I say it because I conceive I have proved it by the same evidence upon which wee accept the Scriptures for the Word of God Upon which wee hold our common Christianity For I have shewed that wee believe the Scriptures for the Scriptures the matter of Faith for the Motives of Faith there related That is wee hold those things which the Scriptures relate sufficient to oblige all the people of God afore Christ to bee Jewes All the people of the world after Christ to bee Christians This in the nature of a reason obliging a man to bee a Christian For in the nature and kind of an effective cause I do not suppose much less grant that any thing is sufficient much less effectual without Gods Spirit â—ut if an Unbeliever should ask mee why I believe that to bee true which being true I grant sufficient to oblige mee to believe It will not serve my turn to say that I find it written in the Scripture So long as the question is why I believe the Scripture My answer must bee that the consent of all Christians in submitting to the Gospel which they would not have done had they not known the motives to bee true for which they did it assures mee as much that they are true as if I had seen the things done which moved them to believe Especially being as much convicted by the light of Reason and Nature that Christianity goes beyond Judaisme for advancing the Service of God and goodness as that Judaisme goes beyond the Religion either of Pagans or Mahumetans For this being the reason why wee believe that must bee The Church founded upon the Power of the Keyâ—s alleged by all that will allege any reason to Unbelievers It must needs have the same force in evidencing the sense that wee allow it in evidencing the credit of the Scriptures If the consent of all Christians in submitting to Christianity upon Motives recorded in the Scriptures assure mee that they are true And therefore the Scriptures the Word of God and Christianity the onely Religion by which wee can bee saved Then the consent of all Christians in owning the obligation of holding Visible Communion with the Church is to assure mee that it is Gods Ordinance For the act or the acts of our Lord upon which the Church is founded I allege the Power of the Keyes described by the effect of binding and loosing and to that effect granted to St. Peter Mat. XVI 18 19 To the Disciples assembled after the Resurrection John XX. 19-23 in the terms of remitting and retaining sinne To the Church Mat. XVIII 15-18 in the same terms as to St. Peter to the effect of rendring him that obeys not a Heathen man or a Publican to him that would bee a Christian Here you have a certain Power deposited with certain Persons the effect whereof is Visible in the succession of Person deriving the authority which they claim from the visible act of those Persons which are here trusted with it And in the maintenance of Visible Communion amongst true Christians by excluding the false It is true Haereticks and Schismaticks exclude themselves out of the Church For they would bee the Church themselves if they could tell how But it is the authority of the Church that obligeth Christians to avoid them as the Jewes to whom our Lord spake did then avoid Heathen men and Publicans And it obligeth by declaring them Haereticks and Schismaticks I know there bee those that would have the imputation of
of all Nations and maintaining all Sâ—ates in their rights of this World pretendeth not to any power of this World to maintain it self by It becometh Visible by the free will of Christians beleeving it a piece of their Christianity to live die members of one Visible Church The Unity of the Jews State tending to a temporal end of enjoying the Land of promise answereth not the invisible unity of Christian souls but the Visible Unity of a Catholick Church according to that rate in which the Law answers the Gospel And so is this point of Christianity no less clearly delivered by the Old Testament then other points of the Christian Faith are CHAP. VI. How far the Scriptures are clear to bee understood of themselves Tradition limiteth the sense of the Scripture Difference between the Tradition of Faith and Ritual Traditions The difference between Haeresie and Schisme The dependence of Churches evidenceth the Vnity of the Whole Church The forme of this dependence throughout the Roman Empire No exception to bee made to it for the British Church Episcopacy by this form inviolable in all Opinions And the Church a standing Synod The Church Visible by disowning Haeretickes and Schismatickes The breaches that have come to pass evidence the same FOr though all that is necessary to bee known for the salvation How far the Scriptures are clear to bee understood of themselves of all Christians bee not onely sufficiently but abundantly contained in the Scriptures yet how clearly there laid down depends upon the purpose for which God declares that hee gave the several parts of it It is manifest that God intended to vaile the New Testament in the Old and to reveal the Old Testament by the New Therefore Christianity cannot bee clearly delivered in the Old Testament Till our Lord was to leave the world hee declared not the condition of Christianity by which wee are saved Hee declared not that which hee declared when hee was to leave the world to wit that it was thenceforth to consist in undertaking to profess the Faith of the Holy Trinity and to live by Christs precepts though ones life lye upon it For he declared not the promise of sending the Holy Ghost till hee was ready to leave the world And therefore the Baptisme of Christ by which Christians do make that prosession which saveth us was not instituted till his departure And though our Lord had clearly preached the precepts of Christian life from the beginning yet is the Visible estate of his Mystical Body the Church as well as the invisible estate of particular members darkly figured and typified not only by the parables of the Gospel but as well by that which befell him as by that which he did during the time of his preaching Therefore neither is Christianity clearly delivered by the Gospels To them to whom the Apostles writ their Epistles the substance of Christianity must needs bee known for they had been made Christians upon the professing of it But their Epistles therefore suppose it and therefore cannot pretend to deliver it Besides the greatest part of them is spent in proving that wee are saved by Christianity out of the Old Testament And therefore by that correspondence in which the Law answers the Gospel the Church the Synagogue and the Kingdom of Heaven the Land of promise And though our Lord opened his Disciples hearts thus to understand the Scriptures yet are not all that shall bee saved able to make out this correspondence the professing and performing of that Christianity whereby they are saved not requiring it Therefore neither are the Apostles writings clear in things necessary to salvation but supposing the knowledg of that Christianity whereby wee are saved nor absolutely clear but to those that are able to make out that correspondence Without this limitation it is not to bee granted that all things necessary to salvation are clear to all that seek salvation by the Scriptures alone For what mark is there extant in the Scripture to distinguish that which is necessary to salvation from that which is not Nor is there any inconvenience in all this to them that are Tradition limiteth the sense of the Scripture content to lay prejudice aside and to see that which they cannot but see For it will appear by the writings of the Apostles that they committed the Doctrine of Christianity to them whom they trusted with the founding and governing of the Church for the instructing of them that were to bee baptized and formed into Churches whereof the whole Church was to consist So that as they to whom the Apostles writ having received their Christianity from those that were so trusted were to limit the meaning of their writings within that Faith which they had received So is all interpretation of Scripture still to bee confined within that which the Church from the beginning hath received by their hands Which is not to make any man lord of any mans Faith For this Tradition of the Faith is before the very being of the Church Because whosoever became a Christian and so a member of the Church it is supposed that hee undertaketh the same And therefore being in force before there bee any Church it cannot depend upon any authority to bee claimed by the Church And the evidence for it is the same ground into which the reason of beleeving resolveth The consent of all Christians Which as it could not have been preserved and obtained had it not been required to make a man a member of that Church which by professing it stood visibly distinct from all that profess iâ— not So since as much as is necessary to salvation hath been already declared by the consent of the Church to confine all interpretation of Scripture within that which all the Church every where at all times hath received can make no man lord over the Faith of the Church But there is a vast distance between this Tradition of Faith Difference between the Tradition of Faith and Ritual Traditions and other Traditions which may have proceeded from that authority and trust for founding the Church which our Lord left with his Apostles and they with the Church For that being the condition upon which all Christians are saved remains alwaies the same neither to bee encreased nor diminished till the Worlds end But the productions of Ecclesiastical power vested in the Apostles and their successours can bee no more then the limiting of circumstances according to which the publick Service of God is to bee performed and those powers exercised which God hath granted the Church for the maintaining of Unity in serving God according to that Christianity which our Lord teacheth Christianity is concerned in them but two waies The first when they are so far from advancing the service of God which Christianity requireth that it is impaired and destroyed by corruption in them The second when a part of the Church proceedeth to a change in them upon pretense that
Bishop Dioscorus by it at length these Churches are counted Jacobites from the name of one Jacobus Zanzalus or little Jacob of Syria who is said to have taught them the position of Eutyches condemned by that Council Whether so or whether a fond zeal for the reputation of Dioscorus hath served to divide that people from the Church upon a meer difference in terms the breach still continues and the Abyssines depending alwaies upon the Church of Alexandria are said to continue in it Since that what breach of intercourse and communion hath fallen out between the Greek and Latine Church or upon what cause and how far it continues I need not relate But there can bee no question that it disposed these Western parts to that breach which the Reformation hath made Within the Reformation I need not speak of the Division between the Calvinists on the one side and the Lutherans in the Empire the Arminians in the Law Countries on the other side I am only this to demadn did ever any of these parties declare that the Visible Unity which these breaches interrupt is not Gods Ordinance That one of the Parties is not always guilty to God for the mischief of Schisme That Christian charity is not highly concerned in violating that Communion which Christianity enacteth Until the dregs of our times I do not know that it was ever Disputed that Christians are not bound to bee members of one and the same Visible Church I have already said that the Reformation was not made by common consent I must now acknowledg futher that it proceeded not expresly upon the profession of one Visible Church though neither denying nor questioning the same No marvel then if in all things it bee not confined to the consequences of it And therefore no marvel that dissentions have fallen out in it No marvel that they who dare not look so clear a principle in the face can wrangle out the salvation of souls upon pety scruples which the admitting of it must needs presently disperse CHAP. VII Reformation to bee bounded by that wherein the Visible Church agreeth No change without regard to the Rules of the Catholick Church Regular authority in the Church of Rome the means of Vnity absolute of Schisme How wee are visibly one with the onely Church of God Reforming without the Church of Rome AS for the Church of England where Episcopacy stands Reformation to bee bounded by that wherein the Visible Church agreeth setled by the Law of the Land as well as by the Law of God and the right of goods consecrated to the Service of God by investing them upon his Church is maintained by the same Are we not to fear the curse of God if in all things of Religion wee mete not by the same Standard if wee weigh not by the same Weights Can wee pretend to weigh by the same Weights unless wee admit the whole Faith and all the Lawes of the Catholick Church Unless wee confine the Reformation to the restoring of that which hath been without introducing that which cannot appear to have been Men see new fanfies every day in the Scriptures which the same man sees not to morrow another man never sees The Profâ—ssion of Faith the Rules of Government the Rites of Gods service are the things that must make a Church a part or no part of the Whole Church For if the Church bee a Visible Body it must bee visible by the Lawes which it useth And if it bee to continue one and the same Body from the first to the second coming of our Lord the Lawes of it will necessarily change as the Lawes of all Bodies do but the authority whence they proceed must needs continue the same If corruption and abuse bee to bee Reformed and those in whom the authority visibly resteth agree not Restoring that which was you have the Authority of the Apostles and their successours for the reviving of their acts Introducing that which was not you go by the spirit of the Fanatickes the dictate whereof appears not in the Scriptures by the consent of the Church In fine mater of Faith is to the worlds end the same that the whole Church hath always from the beginning professed If you impose more the Church of Rome will have a better pretense then you can have namely a better claim to the authority of the Church For it is an imposture to induce any man to think that professing Christianity they can renounce the Scriptures The issue is and will bee whether you or the Church shall be judge Untill you distinguish between the present Church and the Whole Church not contesting the Faith of the present Church so far as it holds with the Whole But in mater of Church Law which for the reason that hath been said is necessarily changeable though the difference of times and the estate of things will not indure the restoring of Primitive Discipline yet shall it bee easie thereby to discern what is abated for Unities sake what is rejected because the Catholick Church and the Lawes of it are not owned And upon these terms it will bee easie to answer all demands No change without regard to the Rules of the Catholick Church not only here but at the great day of Judgement at which otherwise the account cannot bee clear They that would have it thought that the mischiefs which wee have seen have not been acted for nothing would have the Law of the Kingdom in mater of Religion changed to give them content without considering what cause wee give the Church of Rome to take us for Schismatickes balking the Whole Church that wee may bee reconciled to those that have broken from us For supposing for the present though not granting that all Papists are Idolaters and the Pope Antichrist The Unity of the Church is nevertheless as it hath been proved a part of Christian truth Nor can Papists bee Idolaters or the Pope Antichrist for beleeving any thing which the Whole Church beleeveth for commanding or for practicing that which the Whole Church hath commanded or practiced Nay not for that which the Whole Church of any age hath allowed part of the Church to practice For God forbid it should bee said which it were senseless to imagine that part of the Christian World should own part of it for Christians being indeed Idolaters and Partizans of Antichrist The Church must have been utterly lost in that case and the Reforming of it must not bee the mending of the old Church but the making of a new Church Yet is it not enough for these men to allege the antient Church in any particular They must weigh by their own Weights and mete by their own Standard if they will not fall under Gods curse They that stand not to the consent of the Church in all things answer themselves when they allege it Nay they may invite us to bee Schismatickes for their sakes in that for which they truly allege the antient
with judgement as well as with truth and righteousness Wee have this evidence for that which I say that the authorities of those Divines of this Church that have declared the sense of the Oath of Supremacy with publick allowance are now alleged by the Papists themselves to infer that the mater of it is lawful as capable of the sense which they declare Now the bounds of Reformation being visible by the Faith The extent of Secular Power in Reforming the Church and the Laws of the Catholique Church the extent of Secular power in Ecclesiastical maters and over Ecclesiastical persons and therefore in the reforming of them preserving Ecclesiastical power in persons that have it by the founding of the Church from God cannot remain invisible For in the first place there can bee no question That the Sovereign as a Sovereign is to maintain his own Rights by such means as hee finds meet against all Usurpations under pretense of the Church and the authority of it For the common Christianity assureth him that all such Usurpations are contrary to it And besides as a Christian Sovereign it is his Inheritance to bee a Member of the Church and a Protector of all his Subjects in the same right Therefore all Christian Sovereigns are born Advocates and Patrons of the Faith and of the Rights of the Whole Church And if by lapse of time they bee gone to decay if by any express Act they have been infringed it lyes in them to restore their Subjects and themselves to those Rights being brought into evidence by the authority and crâ—dit of the whole Church But seeing the determining of the mater of Ecclesiastical Law as well as of Controversies of Faith belongs to those that have authority in the Church by the foundation of it Of necessity the fitting of the present Laws of every Church to those which the whole Church hath been ruled by from the beginning as the difference which may appear in the State of those bodies to which they were given shall require will by vertue of Gods Law belong to those that have such authority by the Foundation of the Church And upon these terms the right of Secular power in Church maters is accumulative and not destructive to the Rights of the Church And upon these terms only the Sovereign is justifiable at the great Day of Judgment in things that may bee done amiss in reforming the Church CHAP. XXI The pretense of Infallibility makes the breach unreconcileable So doth the pretense of perspicuity in the Scripture The Trial must suppose the Catholick Church The Fanatickes further from the truth of Christianity then the Church of Rome The consequence of their principle worse then that of Infallibility The point of Truth in the middle between both How salvation is concerned in the mater of Free Will and Grace Salvation concerned in the Sacraments upon the same terms The abuses of the Church of Rome in the five Sacraments The Grace of Ordination The Reformation pretended no less abuse on the other side The point of Reformation in the mean between both The Superstitions of the Church of Rome The Superstitions of the Puritans Why the Pope cannot bee Antichrist How it is just to Reform without the See of Rome ANd upon Supposition of the premises for which I conceive The pretense of Infallibility makes the breach unreconcileable I have produced competent evidence I proceed to take the Balance in hand and to put the Extreams into the Scales that I may put it to the conscience of all that are resolved to prefer truth before Faction or prejudice where the point of Reformation lyes upon terms of right And how neer the publique Powers of this Kingdom are bound to come to it in this Case when an Uniformity in Religion is to bee setled by Law for the Church of England In the first place then the Infallibility of the present Church is to bee held â—or an Errour of pernicious consequence in the Church of Rome For it submits all the parts of Christianity to the passion and interest of persons that shall bee for the present in power to sway those maters wherein the whole Church is concerned It is a thing manifest in the world that though that which concerns all in point of Religion is to bee treated by all yet that which is treated by all is concluded always by the authority of a few So things passed when Councils were frequented The Freedom of Councils being interrupted and the present Church accepted for Infallible the See of Rome will of necessity bee the present Church And the passions and interests thereof will have as much power in maters of Religion as those passions and interests can allow and stand with What the effect thereof may bee I need not argue to those that profess the Reformation upon that account Only thus far they may seem excusable that there is no Act with force of Law tying all of that profession to maintain it Infallibility may bee claimed for the whole Church And that is true And it may bee claimed for the present Church which is false They that pretend to reduce us to the Church of Rome would spoil their own market if they should distinguish thus Therefore they plead Infallibility without distinguishing On the other side there is as much difference between the So doth the pretense of perspicuity in the Scripture sufficiency of the Scripture for the salvation of all and the clear evidence of all that is necessary to bee known for the salvation of all to all in the Scriptures The one is as true and the other as false as the Infallibility of the present Church is false and the Infallibility of the whole Church is true And to appeal to the Scriptures alone when the sense of them only is questionable is to declare that wee will submit to no other trial but our own sense As they who declare the present Church infallible can never depart from any thing which once it hath declared For it is manifest that they who appeal to the Scriptures The Trial must suppose the Catholick Church alone having before this appeal declared themselves in the points of difference between the Reformation and the Church of Rome do declare themselves tyed in conscience to stand to that sense of the Scripture upon which they ground their opinion in the maters of difference What means then can remain to bring that to a Trial which causes division upon these terms but to acknowledge one Catholick Church which our Creed professeth And by consequence to submit our sense of all Scripture that remains in question all difference in Doctrine all Laws of the Church to bee determined according to the sense and practice of the whole Church that is within the bounds of it For to proceed to divide the Church still into more and more parties and Communions till wee have lost the sense of any obligation to hold communion with
large that the Cathedral Churches cannot bee made serviceable under the Bishop to the Government of the Whole Diocese If Colleges of Presbyters were erected in all the Head Towns of Counties the youth of the Counties that pretend to the Clergy restoring this Canon must bee under the inspection of the same If before their going to the University they were listed under them as expecting imployment and maintenance under them that is within the County then must they make account to approve their conversations and studies to them as having no other way to live in that estate to which they addict themselves As for the course of finding imployment and maintenance for them I will go no further to particulars then I have done It is enough that the intention should bee the restoring of the Primitive Canons as the estate of this time will require or allow It would bee no small gain that by restoring this Canon Reasons for it the complaint of pluralities would bee silenced For that persons whose abilities and trust are approved to the Bishop by information of the said Presbyters should have the care of more then one Church would bee no more inconvenience then that those Presbyters have a care of the County the Bishop of the Diocese Always supposing that the incumbent upon the Cure and the rate of his maintenance bee allowed or rather constituted by the Bishop to whom that right originally belongs I will say no more to justifie this Proposition but this That hee who is obnoxious to several Churches that is to several Dioceses either as to the duty of Governing or of being Governed can by no means bee accountable to both according to that account which the constitution of the Catholick Church requireth of every Order and Degree of the Clergy And again that seeing all exemptions privileging against the Ordinary Rule and Government of the Church are the effects and consequences of the Papacy and the Usurpations thereof that the Reformation which wee profess cannot bee justified in it self though in comparison it may abate of the abuse which went afore without restoring a Rule of such consequence Buâ— all this while it is no part of my intent that those who are presently possessed by the Law of the Land should bee presently destituted But that a course bee prouided for the future to which the world may bee disposed by degrees In the second place for the justifying of our Reformation Publick fame of sin to bee purged by Ecclesiastical process and towards restoring the Discipline of Penance it is requisite that all Malefactors convicted by Law of capital or infamous crimes or others of as great malice to God though not so destructive to Civil Society should stand Excommunicate when their lives and liberties are saved till they satisfie the Church of their conversion to God The Law of this Land providing no other trial for sins of uncleanness but that of the Ecclesiastical Courts hath hitherto enabled them to proceed to the trial of publick scandals by deposing witnesses ex officio Which according to the rest of the ignorance and malice of the blessed Reformation hath been construed for an Usurpation upon the liberties of Christian people For it is manifest that under the Old Testament the Rulers of Gods antient people were able every one within the Sphere of his authority to oblige all men to answer upon Oath in any thing wherein they should adjure them to answer For upon this account our Lord himself beeing subject to the Law answered the adjuration of the High Priest And the Levitical Law prescribeth a trespass Offering for him who being adjured to speak his knowledge in any business should conceal it This the Jews extend to the adjurations of private persons if made in open Court But there is no question that the Princes and Judges of that People each in the mater of his Office obliged their Inferiors to answer their knowledg So that they were perjured ipso facto concealing that which they knew of any mans cause Under the Gospel it is evident that the Bishop in Consistory with his Presbyters did try all scandals in the Church by summoning all persons within the Diocese to witness their knowledge And that to this effect That if any man were detected to have concealed his knowledge hee became thereby liable to Penance as for a heinous sin And Constantine the Great authorizing by an Act of the Empire yet extant the Sentences of Bishops in all causes that should bee brought to them by consent of parties gives this reason for it Because their authority was able presently to discover that which Civil Courts could not bring to light by tedious suits Whereby it appeareth that all Christians found themselves tied to answer the truth which their Pastors summoned them to declare for discharge of their conscience Christianity being corrupted by the coming of the World into the Church it might become requisite that the generality of this authority should bee restrained within such bounds as emergent abuses might oblige the Law to provide But when a Power so neerly concerning Christianity is cried down for an Usurpation upon the Church it appeareth that Christianity is at a low ebbe if they who understand so little in the Scriptures or in maters concerning the Church dare undertake to Reform it Adultery is one of the sins which the antient Church in some places durst not warrant forgiveness And therefore did not restore Aulterers to the Communion no not at the point of death If the Law therefore provide no other trial for it but by the Christian Court to take away that means of trial which the Church inheriteth of Gods antient people is in some measure to authorize adultery in a Christian Kingdom That is to call down Gods vengeance upon it Rather it should bee provided that inquisition after all scandals upon publick fame might bee authorized upon terms fit to prevent abuses though not for civil punishment which the Christian Court should have nothing to do with yet for the bringing of sin under Penance And therefore much more that sinners which are become â—â—torious Sinners convict â—y â—â—w nâ—â—â—â— Communicate bâ—fore Penance by conviction in Court according to the Civil Law of the Land ought not to bee admitted to the Communion wiâ—hoâ—â— satisfying the Church by performing fit Penance that God is satisfied And the Curate indeed seemeth to bee enabled by the present Law to refuse all such the Communion much more If hee bee able to refuse those that seem scandalous till they bee tried And if hee do not what he is able to do must answer God for the soul which hee poysoneth by giving him the Eucharist who barres himself the effect of it His Repentance not being manifest as his sin is But if the Law will not leave out the Curate in refusing him till hee have satisfied The choice is hard for him that hath a family to forfeit his Benefice by
the consent of the Church That is within those bounds wherein the agreement thereof may appear For the setling of those terms upon which the Fanaticks are either to bee disowned by the Presbyterians or owned by this Church As it must proceed upon that supposition so it will render their Recusancy as concerning all the consequence of that issue visibly punishable in those that refuse to give or take satisfaction upon so just terms And the consequence of the same supposition in bounding that which is questionable in the Laws of this Church to the justifying of the Reformation which it pretendeth will leave it without excuse in other maters For the bounds of that distance which wee are to hold with the Church of Rome being the subject of distance among our selves As it is not possible to determine them but upon that supposition So they will oblige all Christians to that penalty which the Laws of a Christian Kingdom are able to inflict upon those that disobey them being made by virtue of the common Christianity As for my self it shall bee a great pleasure to me to compromise all that I have said either of the Faith or Laws of the Church to the issue of such a trial For there is no reason why I should think it a disparagment to my age not to have seen the due consequence of such a principle in so many maters of so doubtful dispute better then such a number of Divines or either side as must bee imployed in such a debate can make it to appear to those whose authority must conduct and govern it That one principle remaining firme which this Church can never disown if it weigh always by the same Wâ—ights and meâ—e by the same Measures it shall bee much pleasure to me to see any mistake of mine in the consequence of it brought to light having a good hope to God that so innocent an inquiry upon so just a principle in a cause so difficult and so concerning will serve to excuse any such mistake in his presence The same will serve to difference the liberty which I use in publishing this from the licentiousness of those who band themselves against the Lawes of their Country they are sure without those terms for submission to them upon which themselves cannot deny that they shall bee the Laws of Gods Church in it Especially seeing I compromise as many hours of study as much follicitude of thought as due a course of inquiry into the grounds of the mater in question as the most of my quality can have imployed to the like purpose since the beginning of our troubles And seeing this liberty must bee my plea at the great judgment of God for any thing wherein I may have ministred mine Office according to that measure which those Laws will inforce in which the best of my own private judgement requires an amendment The consequence of the same in Uniting the Reformed Churches And the acknowledgement of this Principle puts an end to another motion concerning the uniting of all Reformed Churches of all that are called Protestants against the Church of Rome whether this trial proposed come to an issue or not For it is manifest that before the issue of such a trial with them as among our selves all union with them upon account of Religion is but mutual toleration providing that no breach succeed or that none bee made wider then presently it is by the disclaiming of Communion between the parties And that is to bee referred to the wisdom of Superiors the terms which wee our selves ought to insist upon being secured by the express profession of that Principle whereof they are all but the consequences Wee are to stand to Luthers appeal to a Council that should judge by the Scriptures alone limiting the interpretation of the Scriptures as the Rule to judge by to the consent of the Church as the evidence for the bounds of it Had this limitation been expressed in their proceedings at home as it cannot bee said ever to have been disclaimed in their proceedings abroad with Calvinists there had been sufficient ground for preventing not only the particular breach between them but the general breach with the Church of Rome There had been no cause why both parties of Reformed and Catholick might not have continued one Church both Reformed and Catholick Since so great distances are come to pass As it is in vain to expect an union without agreeing first upon the Principle of it So it will not bee safe to maintain Communion upon toleration of differences on foot without protestation for that Principle which must maintain our own Christianity leaving them to themselves and to God in all maters of difference If this Union bee demanded upon the account of common defense against the Powers which own the Church of Rome which seems to bee the inâ—ent of those that would try the cause of Religion by the sword The same protestation will bear out all Christian Powers in point of conscience The interest of their good and the good of their Subjects being provided for by their wisedom For the maters in difference being acknowledged by securing the principle upon which they are to bee decided It will always be in their power to joyn for the maintenance of those Laws whereby the Reformation is setled in their respective Sovereignties Without undertaking for the justice of any Laws but those which each Sovereignty is to answer for because it makes them And the effect of this reservation will bee of great consequence to the retaining of that Christianity which is left us For this limitation will exclude all Power of joyning for the maintenance of Subjects in attempting the Reformation of Religion or the maintenance of the same by force against the Will of their Sovereigns The oversight of which provision in actions of State imputed to the supposition of Religion when they might as well have been intitled to causes of Civil Right hath had a very visible hand in the troubles which we have seen And is the more carefully to bee avoided for the future because the pretense is upon all occasions so studiously advanced by those that have been active in the same I have maintained the lawfulness of having Images in An instance in the having of Images in Churches Churches Now considering the distance between lawful and necessary I find it not amiss to declare by this instance upon what terms the Rule which I have proposed of reducing all customs of this Church to that estate in which wee find them practised during the primitive times of the Catholick Church may bee serviceable to the purpose of Unity amongst our selves For there is so little mention of Images in Churches during neer four hundred years after Christ for increase of devotion for instruction of the unlearned or for the ornament of Churches that it may well bee demanded as for the consequence of that Rule that the use of them though lawful may
correspondent to the primitive forme tending to the Unity of the Whole But let no man think that for the love of such a correspondence I have any itch to call in question the Unity of the Whole The alteration is great and must needs produce a great motion to ingraffe it into the Laws of the Kingdom And therefore I am not of opinion to change the Law for hope of amendment with so much appearance of danger to the being of the Whole But I am of opinion that it would bee easie to erect Presbyteries that is Colleges of Presbyters in all Shire Towns which have no Cathedral Churches for the Ecclesiastical Government of the respective Counties with and under the Bishops And that so the Rule of the Church would bee set on work to the best effect and purpose For those Towns have commonly Churches altogether unprovided of means through the horrible sacrileges that have passed and yet in common reason agreeing with the wisdom of Gods Spirit from whence the Rule of Episcopacy issued ought to bee Nurseries of Christianity to the respective Counties And that intent cannot so well bee brought to effect as by planting the wisest and those that have most of the Clergy in their lives in the most eminent places with authority next to the Chief over their respective bounds By the ministery of such persons the Offices of Gods service might so bee performed in the chief places as might be a patern for their Country Churches to follow These Presbyters might grow up by education in that discipline of the Clergy which I have recommended upon the experience of the whole Church They might live a Collegiate life in common exercising a care and inspection over Inferiours together with the charge of instructing or seeing them instructed in the Scriptures The Canon of the whole Church confining all degrees of the Clergy to their respective Churches might bee revived by their means The superseding whereof being certainly one of the irregularities of the Papacy hath conduced much to the dissolution of Discipline in the Church For in conscience how can hee that is obliged to any Church give account of himself to another to which the first is not subordinate And therefore though the Presbyteries which I propose bee not Churches yet may they take account of their respective Clergy and render it to their Bishops The promotion of inferiour Orders belonging unto their account may procced upon the account which they give The censures that are requisite to pass in foro exteriori may pass them in the first instance and from them being transmitted to the Bishop bee either inacted or voided Always with right of appeal to the Synod of the Province in cases of weight and in the intervals thereof to their Deputies To which purpose and in which nature the High Commission ought to bee revived For as it is by no means to bee allowed that the Bishops negative bee any way questioned So is it no way fit that the consent of Bishop and Presbyters both bee concluded in one and the same instance As for those Dioceses which are concluded within only one County there I suppose I need not say that the Chapter of the Cathedral are by inheritance this Presbytery Now these Colleges of Presbyters consisting of those only that shall have run the whole course of their lives in the education and discipline of the Clergy is there any possible pretense of burthen upon them if the condition of single life should bee required to qualifie them for their places For this were not to tye any man to single life seeing who will may go forth and bee provided of a Country Church But it were to maintain the discipline of the Clergy in the most eminent places wherein there is a course proposed to them who imbrace it of ending their days in it And the course of a Collegiate life which I propose seemeth a sufficient means and advantage to overcome those temptations which in these days may seem too difficult for all the Clergy to undergo As for the means of supporting these Presbyteries wherein the Gure of all Parishes within the Shire Towns is provided for and included It is no difficulty to him that considers with conscience that originally the indowment of the Diocese was the Patrimony of the Mother Church and afterwards appropriated to Parish Churches by abating the right of the Mother Church upon particular contracts appearing to bee for the good of the parts For if the Mother Church have abated so much of her common right when it was for the good of the Parishes Is it not necessary that the Parishes now abate of their property in their respective indowments by Pensions to these Colleges now they appear to bee for the good of tâ—e Diocese And this I am now bold to profess though Superiors do not go before in it because I am confident that by this position I abate not a hair of that Power which the Bishops in England now use But I adde much to the strictness of discipline that is in effect of Christianity by requiring all Ordinations all acts of Jurisdiction in foro exteriori to pass both the Presbyters and the Bishop in several instances And further then this I extend not the opinion of a Divine to particulars but leave the rest intire to the wisdom of Superiors And this may serve to show that there is no cause why the difference on foot concerning the Government of the Church may not settle into a change conducing to the advancement of the common Christianity Which will hold till stronger in the other concerning the Service if men take their measures by the common interest of Christianity not by their particular prejudices For I conceive I may well suppose that the Sectaries pretense of praying by the Spirit is content to bee buried in oblivion and silence considering that the excesses are evident and horrible which that pretense hath brought forth Besides that no man now stands to that dangerous position That the Offices of Gods service are of no effect when they are ministred by such as are not in the state of Grace For I presume it is not nor can bee supposed on any hand that all whom the Church must imploy are indowed with Gods spirit that is are in the state of Grace I suppose further as not questioned on any hand that the publick service of God is to consist of the praises of God by the Psalms of David and other Hymns of Gods Church of the reading of the Scriptures of the instruction of Gods people out of them in fine of the Prayers of the Church and in the chief place of the Sacrament of the Eucharist and those prayers which it is to bee celebrated with Some of our Sects have been bold to pretend that the Psalter or Psalms of David are impertinent to the Devotions of Christians as concerning the particular condition of David and composed with regard to it Whereby they